Tips for cleaning your smartphone and other mobile devices

Folks, here are some useful and/or interesting “infos” I think you will want to know about.

* Cleaning supplies for your smartphones, tablets, and accessories

“Matthew Nawrocki shares some tips for cleaning oils, dirt, and grime from your smartphone and other handheld mobile devices. Read more..

* (This is another one where the reader comments are interesting too) Will 90 percent of users always hate Windows 8?

“Windows 8 doesn’t exactly seem to be setting the world alight. Perhaps the requirement that indifferent users have to sit down and learn their way around something new is causing problems…” Read more..

* IT job cuts: Is the end finally in sight?

“A poll of IT chiefs’ views on hiring and budgets picks out a whiff of change in the jobs climate.” Read more..

* Sort of related: Words that mean nothing in a resume

“Some of the most often used terms in resumes are also the most meaningless. Learn how to avoid that pitfall.” Read more..

* Two free, full-blown alternatives to MS Office

“As Microsoft’s Office has grown in size and complexity, more than a few users have wondered whether there’s a viable alternative — especially when it comes time to pay for an upgrade or new copy.” Read more..

* Yippee yahoo: Spy agencies to be granted access to US citizen finances

“Should intelligence agencies in the United States have unrestricted access to the banking details of U.S. citizens? The federal government believes so.” Read more..

That shouldn’t bother me.. right?

* Software giveaway (reader submitted): today only..Nature Illusion Studio Standard Edition (PC) 100% Discount Coupon Code *** Great News! Nufsoft has agreed to extend this deal for another day – Enjoy! ***

“Nature Illusion Studio Standard Edition transforms your nature photos into living works of art with weather effects that are sure to astound! Using Nature Illusion Studio Standard Edition, you can add realistic snow, water, rain, and more, then throw in some butterflies, birds, and other objects to increase the level of nature in your nature photography. You don’t need to be a professional graphic designer, either, since Nature Illusion Studio Standard Edition offers an intuitive interface that lets anyone transform their photos.

It’s not just rain or snow, either. Within each category, you have complete control over such details as the intensity, wind direction, speed, transparency, and size. And once you think you’re done improving your photos with weather effects, you can take it to the next level! Nature Illusion Studio Standard Edition lets you add sound effects to all of your photos, immersing your audience in a total sensory nature experience. When you’re done, you can save your living photos as self-executing files, videos, or screensavers!”

Thank you for the heads up, Dear Reader.

Today’s quotable quote: “I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.” ~ Audrey Hepburn

Silly Poll #3 (cont..) Does “clumping” cat litter save money in the long run?

Copyright 2007-2013 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

The Future of Tech – “Intuitive” Phones

Notes From The Social-Loco Conference

Recently a conference was held in San Fransisco which discussed the direction of technological development — what can we expect from our devices in the next few years? Rest assured, smart people are working hard to bring us what we need.

Image source: SF Gate (online)

It seems that the most important thing is mobility.

And social networking.

Why?

“With the convergence of social networking and mobile phones becoming more pronounced, tech companies are working toward a future when those devices are beyond smart and become intuitive.“

“Intuitive”? That sounds good, right?

“Using built-in accelerometers, GPS systems and compasses, a phone can have a “sixth sense” in determining when its owner is driving to work or sitting down to lunch, speakers at the Social-Loco Conference said. And then the phone can tap into a social network to make contextual recommendations, such as routes to get around a traffic jam or a new dish to try.”

Location awareness: Don’t be fooled by that pleasant & helpful sounding “route around a traffic jam” and focus instead on “a new dish to try”. They don’t give a rat’s *bottom* for being so helpful as getting you somewhere on time — they want to serve you ads, plain and simple. Ads based on what store you happen to be nearest to at the moment.

Why?

“The conference at the Mission Bay Conference Center focused on social networking, location-based services and mobile phones, trends that are particularly important to the biggest social network of all, Facebook.

Generating revenue from mobile users is one of the key investor concerns that dragged down Facebook’s stock price after its debut as a publicly traded company last month. The company previously warned it did not have a proven method of generating revenue from mobile.”

Today’s Geekspeak Translation: “Generate revenue” = serve up advertisements

Bah. I am getting sick-up and fed. “Loco” (Spanish for nutso/cuckoo/bonkers) is right.

Just what I want! More ads! On my phone! Yay!

Is there no escape? Hasn’t anyone woken up to the fact that we humans have become adept at tuning out/ignoring ads as “white noise”? (Solution: double their exposure! If that fails, TRIPLE it!)

In other lunacy: Somebody told me how I could be “Mayor” of my local mall on foursquare..

“foursquare, is a location-based social networking website for mobile devices, such as smartphones. Users “check in” at venues using a mobile website, text messaging or a device-specific application by selecting from a list of venues the application locates nearby. Location is based on GPS hardware in the mobile device or network location provided by the application. Each check-in awards the user points and sometimes “badges”.”

I guess this is “modern marketing”?

Is everyone 15 years-old? All of a sudden? Foursquare just may be the single dumbest concept I’ve yet encountered. (I guess when you’re 15, you want to know where everybody is, all the time…? )

*     *     *

You may have noticed that my VodPod videos are gone. That is because the simple and effective video sharing service was recently purchased by a company run by 15 year-olds, who immediately broke it [aka “FAIL”], and also changed its name to Lockerz (where using a “z” instead of an “s” makes you hip, slick, and trendy!)
But .. now I can have something called “decalz”.

Click the link where my widget used to be. Take a look at Lockerz (“A Social Life That Pays”). There you’ll see the future…

Earn “Pointz”!

There’s something seriously – fundamentally – wrong here.. And I don’t think it’s me.

Coming Soon

Source for today’s topic: Bloomberg: Conference looks at social, mobile possibilities

Today’s Quick Tip: Set your phone’s “location awareness” setting to “9-1-1 Only“. Trust me. It’s nobody’s concern what store you happen to be walking past right now.

Today’s quote: “People are always telling me that change is good. But all that means is that something you didn’t want to happen has happened.” ~ Meg Ryan

Copyright 2007-2012 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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All we really have, in the end, are our stories.
Make yours great ones. Ones to be proud of.

Additional Android Adventures…

I have been using my HTC “android” smart phone for a while now, and I can report to you, Dear Reader, that I have not experienced “buyer’s remorse”, nor a case of “the honeymoon’s over” – but, in fact, can say my little ‘droid has “grown on me”. I appreciate it a little more each day. (For those interested, I wrote a 3-part series; which starts here: My First Look At Android, part 1)

I have also a better sense, now, of what I do not like so much (though that has remained fairly consistent). Those things are:
1) bigger screen, please.
2) better battery life (yes, I understand phone maker’s are not responsible for battery technology. And I understand those two requests are counter — a bigger screen drains the battery faster.).
3) Made in America. (Yes. I would pay more.)

As much as I like my little ‘droid, I have not had the time to really explore the universe of “customizations” available that separates the Android operating system apart from the competitors. But I am intrigued, and may even – one day – “root” my phone and take total control. But for now I am just perusing articles such as today’s reading reco: 4 methods to customize Android phones and tablets

“One of the strengths of the Android platform is the level of customization that owners can use to tailor the user experience in every way. Here are my top customizations for Android devices.“

Related: For those thinking of upgrading phones – now that 4G is here .. 4G Wireless Speed Tests: Which Is Really the Fastest?

“By now you’ve seen all the ads pitching wireless companies’ new 4G mobile broadband services and devices. But beyond all the buzzwords and hype, which companies can reliably provide next-generation speed? We decided to find out by testing each of the four major national carriers–AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon–in 260 locations spread among 13 U.S. cities.“

Related (sorta): I am still looking at tablets. But I have decided to hold off, and see how the current fierce competition shakes out (as well as let the prices drop), but I pretty much decided that a 7″ size is my ‘sweet spot’. And, that Android will be my OS.

The weekend’s here. Yay!

Today’s free download: For those of you who like to download Flash games, or YouTube videos, Orbit (a download manager) will simplify your tasks. From site: “It is a free all-in-one downloader which can download streaming media, social music or video from anywhere include youtube, myspace, imeem, pandora, etc. It is famous for its super light, great speed and rapidshare supported.” (Today’s link also includes the review [and video] on C/Net.)

News: WordPress hacked

Security Incident

“Tough note to communicate today: Automattic had a low-level (root) break-in to several of our servers, and potentially anything on those servers could have been revealed.

We have been diligently reviewing logs and records about the break-in to determine the extent of the information exposed, and re-securing avenues used to gain access. We presume our source code was exposed and copied. While much of our code is Open Source, there are sensitive bits of our and our partners’ code. Beyond that, however, it appears information disclosed was limited.

Based on what we’ve found, we don’t have any specific suggestions for our users beyond reiterating these security fundamentals…”

Copyright 2007-2011 © “Tech Paul” (Paul Eckstrom). All Rights Reserved.

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